1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a track apparatus for egg breaking mechanisms which can be advantageously incorporated in an automatic egg breaking apparatus for successively breaking eggs and taking out their contents.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
As is well known, eggs have found wide use. For example, the egg yolk may be used as a material for making mayonnaise or other food products. The egg white (albumen) may be used for making pharmaceutical products or as a binder for protein products. Due to such wide use of the egg, it is absolutely necessary in industry to use an automatic egg breaking apparatus for breaking eggs and taking out their contents at high speed.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-59089 discloses an egg breaking apparatus wherein an endless chain conveyor has a track apparatus that carries a plurality of egg breaking mechanisms at a constant pitch along the endless moving path of the chain conveyor. The chain conveyor is held in engagement with a plurality of sprocket assemblies as direction change assemblies, so that the moving path of the chain conveyor is divided by the direction change assemblies into different regions where each of the egg breaking mechanisms is caused to perform different operations which include egg reception, egg breaking, cleaning, and etc. One of the sprocket assemblies is a drive sprocket assembly for causing movement of the chain conveyor.
According to the prior art arrangement, all of the direction change assemblies are in the form of sprocket assemblies which cannot be conveniently cleaned due to the presence of the sprocket teeth. Thus, the prior art track assembly as a whole suffers a hygienic problem resulting from bacterial breeding at the sprocket assemblies which are fouled by the egg residues but insufficiently cleaned later.